SIDECK, JOHN BAPTIST

SIDECK, JOHN BAPTIST (1790–1842). John Baptist Sideck (Sydeck, Saidet), early settler, was born in Natchitoches, Louisiana, on October 8, 1790, the son of Pierre Clavis (François) and Ursula (Schleyter or Chletre) Sideck. During the War of 1812 he served as a private in the Louisiana militia. In 1819, possibly as a member of the Long expedition, he moved to Texas and settled on the north bank of the San Antonio River at Mesquite Landing; he was perhaps the earliest settler in the area before the Power and Hewetson colony was established. The families of Nicholas Fagan, Peter Teal, and Edward McDonough came later; a neighboring rancher was Carlos de la Garza. In his application for land in 1834 Sideck stated that he had been in Texas fifteen years before that date. His brother, Peter Sideck, and Anthony Sideck (probably his brother) moved with him or came shortly thereafter. John B. and Anthony Sideck were with the advance guard that went to Goliad after John Joseph Linn's message that a company of Matagorda planters under George Morse Collinsworth was on the way to capture Goliad, which they succeeded in doing on October 10, 1835 (seeGOLIAD CAMPAIGN OF 1835). John Sideck was among the colonists in Nuestra Señora del Refugio Mission (seeGOLIAD CAMPAIGN OF 1836) under the command of William Wardqv when it was attacked by Gen. José de Urrea, on March 14, 1836, and was with Hugh McDonald Frazer's company at the battle of Coleto. Although ordered shot, he was spared in the Goliad Massacre through the intercession of Carlos de la Garza, who was a captain in the Mexican army. Sideck died in 1842, and Peter Teal was granted letters of administration upon the estate.